The Hocking sentinel. [volume] (Logan, Ohio) 1871-1906, 1887-09-22
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND.
The Captured Flags and Pensions.
General George. w. Morgan at
Cameron, Ohio.

Cameron, Ohio.
- - ~-S------
The following is the concluding portion
OF General AIorgan's speech ct Cameron,
Monroe county, on September Eth:
How clean, broad and patriotic the adj
ministraticn of President Cleveland has
been, when his order for the return OF
the captured flags, deposited in the War
Office, is ma lie the chief subject OF com
plant against it.
The order was given, reconsidered anil
countermandei, and that is the Begin
ming and the ending of the whole affair.
Not one captured flag has been or will be
removed from the National Capital, and
all this smoke ON the subject amounts to
nothing.
a nation is great family, in which
union and good will are vital clements;
as envy and discord are sources OF weak
ness and failure. We of the North can
afford to be just and generous, for after
four years OF heroic battle, on either side,
the victory was ours.
During the war there was no malice
between the soldiers of the opposing
armies. The war over, certain northern
and certain southern troops of their own
motion returned captured flags which
had been gallantly won, and as calamity
defended ON well contested fields; and
those acts of generous chivalry were
hailed with loud acclaim from ocean to
ocean, and from Canada TO Mexico; and
the world believed that we were again a
united people, bound together by the
ennobling sentiment of patriotism.
Inspired by such feeling, brave and
meritorious soldier of two wars, who,
when but boy, enlisted in the first
regiment OF Pennsylvania volunteers in
our war with Mexico, and who for gal
lantry was promoted from the ranks to a
lieutenancy in q regular regiment, and
who is now Adjutant General of the
army OF the United States, suggested to
the Secretary of War, and he to the
Chief Magistrate OF the Republic, that the
captured flags deposited in the War Office
should be restored to those from whom
they had been g,oriously won, and by
whom they had been gallantly defended.
The President did order those flags to be
returned but, on further consideration,
countermanded the order. The order
was generous and patriotic mistake; a
mistake prompted by desire to prove to
the people of the south that we are all
countrymen again; that we have but one
hag-the star spangled banner or the
Union. But for all that, the order was
calculated to, and did wound the sus-
capabilities OF many Union soldiers. and
this constituted the mistake. OF all men,
soldiers are the most impulsive, but as a
rule they are the most generous OF men;
and brave and generous men should not
allow party motives to smother the grand
and noble impulse of generosity. Let
the man who never committed mistake
step 10 the front! For he is the only
man who has right to cast stone at
Grover Cleveland. The man does not
i've who never committed a mistake.
And if the order was 4 mistake, so have
been the assaults made against the Presi-
dent
In one of the many histories of the
battle Of Waterloo, legend is told OF
;wo sides &c camp-the one Of Napoleon,
the other OF Wellington, who crossed
each others path, each bearing an order
from his chief, on the execution OF which
he fate OF the battle might depend. The
ircnchman bore down Oh the Eng
sliIhal, VI ho rode steadily OF his course
Gut IS they neTed eacl, o.her the Eng
lishman raised the stump OF his sword
dr.n, which had been shot away III
i. rm, I battle, and instead OF striking his
,iiS;:hie,! foe, the Frcnuhman rouah ht his
sGcri 10 :: salute and caliopel on.
lis doing so was 4 nista:;e o. ycnerosi-
~. The Erglishman should have been
made prisoner, and the failure 10 Go 30
might Lave lost the hattle; but the
nobility OF the mistake has always re-
ceived n,ore praise than ccnsurt
The gr,at Napoleon is credited with
SAYING: HE is the best general who
makes the few st mistakes, and despite
al the grandeur of his character, he vas
rot an exception TO his own general
rule.
But let us look at home; and it is un-
necessary to 60 farther back than the
great civil war; the grandest trial by
Eattle the world has ever seen; a war
which not only saved the Union, but
placed our country in the forefront OF
nations.
When the national fsg was fred upon
at Sumter, the seeding states were desti-
tute, or nearly so, of military officers OF
skill and experience, while the United
States had more than twelve hundred.
AS for fighting, the American volun-
teer north and south, fights as bravely in
his first battle as in his last, rs Shiloh
and Donnelson prove; but to make his
courage and intelligence thoroughly
there must lie organization,
discipline and drill and these requisites
the south did not possess, until mistake
of President Lincoln furnished the con-
fedeTates with nearly two hundred Off
GERS OF skill and experience, whose res
ignations he accepted after Sumter bad
be en- fred upon, and when it was known
they were about 10 take up arms against
the Union.
hold in my hand the official army
register published by order Of the Secre-
tary of War, in Sept. 1861, which gives
the names and dates of the designations
Of southern officers, which were accepted |
V Mr. Lincoln after our flag had been !
tired upon at Sumter And in the list I
we find the names of Robert i. Lee,
Albert Sidney Johnson and Joseph f.
Johnson; the equals of Grant ahd Nc
Cleilan and Sheridan. and also the |
names o. James L. Loncstreet, one OF |
the thunderbolts of southern war; of |
Ticket, whose name was made immortal
with that Of Hancock, the hero OF Get
.ysburg, in that decisive battle OF the
Iuar and aiSn the nnInrS of L irl,Y Smith